The leaders of the United States and China agreed to restore military communication channels that were severed amid frayed bilateral relations.

The agreement was reached during summit talks between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the margins of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in San Francisco on Wednesday.

A senior Biden administration official told reporters that the U.S. leader clearly called for the institutionalization of "military-to-military communication" as a means of preventing inadvertent armed clashes, to which the Chinese side agreed to take relevant steps.

The two sides are set to resume high-level military communication between their defense chiefs once Beijing appoints a new defense minister.

Beijing's foreign ministry said Xi urged the U.S. to take real action to honor its commitment to refrain from supporting Taiwan’s independence, calling for Washington to cease the provision of arms and to support China's peaceful reunification.

While stressing that such reunification is inevitable, Xi told Biden that China has no intention of taking military action against Taiwan over the next several years.

Biden, for his part, said Washington believes in maintaining the status quo around the Taiwan Strait, but urged Beijing to respect the electoral process in Taiwan's presidential election in January.

Xi told Biden that China's legitimate interests are seriously affected by U.S. actions such as export controls, investment screening and unilateral sanctions, but Biden said such economic measures will remain in place in order to protect U.S. national security.

Biden also said that technologies which China could use against the U.S. military will remain off the table.

The leaders also agreed to tackle the fentanyl crisis, with China pledging to crack down on local chemical companies that manufacture the base materials, which then enter the U.S. via Mexico.